Okey dokey - e-mail me though. My cell phone died and I'm too lazy to go find it and plug it in. I'll try to remember to do that later this morning, maybe when I can get a kid to do it for me.

Thank you Deena and Laura....

Trudy + liquor = COMEDY GOLD, BAYBEE!!

Wroddy McWrod.

Jilli and Pete - I'm so very sorry about the Dread Beastie. Love to you both. And to Clovis.

bt, I'm sorry that you and AS aren't going to settle down and have a passle of fat actuarial babies. I feel quite certain, however, that Ms Right will be snapping you up any minute now, and giving me a different chick to feel vaguely jealous of. (See, if it weren't for the little matter of geography, I would so be dating you into the middle of next week. Or at least fighting crime with you.)

Meanwhile, in the world of me, yesterday was Bonfire Night. In Britain we don't really go a bundle on Halloween - or at least, we never used to; latterly it's become much more of a thing, because kids aren't stupid, and the notion of a tradition that combines fancy dress AND parentally approved extortion of sweets is naturally one designed to appeal to British kids. However, in the UK Bonfire Night is our big Pagan celebration night. We light big bonfires, dress up warmly, eat jacket potatoes & hotdogs & soup & bonfire toffees & toffee apples and watch fireworks displays. We burn an effigy on top of the fire which we call Guy, but Guy Fawkes never was burned to death, he was hanged, drawn and quartered; although ostensibly Bonfire Night is the anniversary of a failed terrorist attack on the Houses of Parliament (which would have been the 911 of its day, had it worked), it's really all a bit more druidic than that. Anyway, last night in Cairo my flatmate and I got together with our neighbour and a handful of British mates and had a teeny wee barbecue-sized bonfire. And sparklers. And jacket potatoes and hotdogs in onion gravy and mash potatoes and "hot apple cider" (although it wasn't really cider, because cider is alcoholic, so this was a bit Americanish, but yummy nevertheless). And flatmate had special Magic Powder stuff from Canada which turned the flames violet/blue/green. And we all wore scarves and hats and gloves and cosy things; I even put on proper not-sandal type shoes.

It was fun. Although there were more palm trees than we usually have.

Also in mememe news - my back is still hurting. Wish I had a sexy/dramatic anecdote about this, possibly involving tigers, or at least a scantily clad Johnny Depp, but in fact I just picked up a big floor cushion and carried it badly.

Can you credit that? Utterly pathetic.

With regard to the weight-loss thing - it's all gone a bit tits up, really, this past week, but I'm still making some good decisions and it turns out that I'm actually on track regarding the progress I'd hoped to have made by this point. I've lost half a stone (7lb), which is really rather cheering. Go Team Me. Need to get my act together now, and get back on track wrt planning meals/making soup/preparing healthy stuff. (I'm considering occasional forays into unhealthy eating in the light of lulling my metabolism into a false sense of security. Yes, yes, no need to switch to starvation mode, look at the sweet'n'sour chicken! See, nothing to worry about! You go ahead and burn up the calories, Mr Metabolism! Quick, switch to soup and carrot sticks and lots of water! Bwahahaha! What? No, nothing to see here, Mr Metabolism. Lots of food being consumed. Carry on.)

...er. Or something.

I've lost half a stone (7lb)

Good Lord. Excellent work, Fay!

I didn't realise it was Bonfire Night until about half five yesterday, when all the fireworks started outside my window. They were more or less constant until about one in the morning. Pretty, but loud. Glad I don't have a dog over here.

Happy Day, CaBil (and a timely tagline, I note)!

So I walked over to the pharmacy yesterday and got a week's worth of broad-spectrum antibiotics and some anti-spasmodics. And some Vicodin, just in case. Much relief...but. The anti-spasmodics warn that they'll turn your urine bright orange, and may dye soft contacts. I wasn't prepared for my SALIVA to also be bright orange. Freaky as hell.

I kind of wish I was still breastfeeding, so I could see if Mallory turned bright orange also.

Half a stone! That's tremendous, Fay - go you! And in case a scantily clad Johnny Depp shows up on your doorstep, I wouldn't want you injuring your back again, so you must direct him my way.

Excellent work, Fay!

Thank you! Go Team Me!

Raq, you've been Tangoed! t / joke probably only entertaining to Brits.

You do sound disconcertingly orange, love. Do you think you'd cry orange tears? 'Cause that would be freaksome.

And in case a scantily clad Johnny Depp shows up on your doorstep, I wouldn't want you injuring your back again, so you must direct him my way.

As they say around here: "fill mishmish!" (ie "dream on, baybee"/ "when pigs fly" - direct translation = "in the time of the apricots") ...if a scantily clad Johnny Depp shows up on my doorstep, my flatmate and I will be fighting over him to the death. During which time my friend K, God of Gay, will probably whisk him off and seduce him in the garden.

WooHoo, Fay!

I had three surprises yesterday. The first one requires a bit of background for the casual viewer to understand, and is tangentially related to the other two. I've been having a not so fun time at work this past week, enough that I have been thinking about going back to the menial office work I'd been doing before I started working with developmentally disabled adults (by menial, I mean trying to be a secretary but not having any typing skills, thusly not getting the good temp assignments). I've not been feeling terribly connected to the clients I've been working with. The thought of having to deal with the cow-orker of the day for 4 hours cast a pall over the rest of an otherwise pleasant day with Daniel. The first surprise is this: I got in to work, and two of the women I care for spent so much time hugging on me and talking to me right when I walked in, that it was it was a challenge to get around to signing in. Something just clicked into place and suddenly the cow-orker didn't matter.

Second surprise was this: To cheer me up, Daniel bought me a handful of carnations. They are bright and pretty. And he had stuck them in the fridge and purposefully forgot about them so that I would find them when I went looking for an after work snack.

Third surprise was finding that Harvey had chewed a hole in the package of hot dogs and nibbled the end of just one of them. That was more of a surprise for Daniel, as he had only turned his back on the package for a moment, and never noticed that Harvey got into it.

Did I miss CaBil's birthday? That's no good! Happy Belated Birthday, CaBil!

Timelies all!

Fay, so good to see you!

I got in to work, and two of the women I care for spent so much time hugging on me and talking to me right when I walked in, that it was it was a challenge to get around to signing in. Something just clicked into place and suddenly the cow-orker didn't matter.

That's wonderful! I'm so glad it finally clicked for you. I hope it sticks. Also, what a sweetie that Daniel is. And silly Harvey!

I need to try to get some homework done this morning, because this afternoon I'm off to a quilting class with mom. We're going to a Fabric Manipulation class. It's going to be more exciting than it sounds. The sample in the store looked so cool! I can't wait to learn to do this stuff. I just hope my sewing machine isn't so out of date that I can't do anything or have to share with mom, making it difficult for us to keep up with the rest of the class.

I'm hoping to take what we do today and make it into a wall hanging for my bedroom. We're working with white fabric, and I found white-on-white fabric with little vw bugs on it that is just too cool! So, that's going to be my backing fabric for the wall hanging. Such fun!

edit: You can't see it very well, but this is the fabric with the little bugs on it: [link]

bt, I'm sorry that you and AS aren't going to settle down and have a passle of fat actuarial babies.

Please, don't be, I couldn't eat another thing anyway.

Anyway, today it's all more complicated. We is still un-itemed, but there is now dispute about its desirability. I think I have become a heartbreaker. (I'm trying not to let it go to my head.) Anyway, it does comfirm that these things should be done face to face where possible. This is one of the moments when life places the call for you (ok, me) to step up, as it were.

(See, if it weren't for the little matter of geography, I would so be dating you into the middle of next week. Or at least fighting crime with you.)

Hee. Geography, my old nemesis! Wait, that's gravity. I like geography, that's where they keep all the cool stuff.

I've lost half a stone (7lb)

Well done! I have lost nothing, and my schedule over the last month has been playing havoc with any pretence to regular exercise. I keep hoping the next week will improve.

Heartbreaker billytea. Why am I not surprised?